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Grace's PERSONAL NEWSLETTER UPDATE |
Archives - INDEX to Personal newsletters
RESTORATION & INCREASING 'FREEDOM FROM RESTRICTION'!!!
Sept 2004
Dear friends...there is a lot in this long newsletter, and many of you may not have time to read it all, so I have put it into smaller sections for easy access to the sections you are interested in reading as able. I hope this helps :)
Intro - Thank you! / SOME INCREASING FREEDOMS - Eyesight update - Scooter Opens Doors for Ministry Opportunities - Photography - EthniClay Opens Opportunities for Deepening Relationships / Planning on Having Hand Surgery in Early 2005 - Retreat / OTHER WAYS GOD IS LOOKING AFTER ME - Scooter mishap - God's Amazing Provisions - Office chair provison - God's Amazing Care in Providing 'Custom-Ordered' Shirts! - Garage Sale & Cookies, etc. - God Turns My Disability into an Opportunity / MINISTRY UPDATES - Chris's visit - S. Asian Global Convention - Internships - My usual roles & what I do - (Networking, Newsletters & Web Sites; Consulting; Networking & Partnership Development; Research; Promotions; Training & Curriculum); Coordination & Facilitation; Developing Possible Models - For Those Who Are Not Aware of My Journey Re the Arts / PERSONAL & FAMILY - God Provides More Opportunities for Artistic Expression - God the Artist - Lots of Guests this Summer - Family / LOOKING AHEAD - Slowing Down Somewhat & Tying Up Loose Ends (Putting My House in Order) - Some Encouraging Words - Forward Movements With the Gat*eway Crea*tion Arts Centre & Related Aspects - The Arts & Justice & Social Issues - Ending /
Dear Praying Friends!
Job 36:15 "...But those who
suffer he delivers in their suffering;
he speaks to them in their affliction.
16 "He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to
a spacious place free from restriction,
to the comfort of your table laden with choice food..."
Wow!!! What a wild adventure the past months have been!!! You just never know what's going to happen!
No wonder God seems so intent on having us 'let go' of our own agendas! Although we do need to plan, I have increasingly found that He wants me to be very open-handed about my schedule and be willing to flex with Him at a moments notice, often. In doing so I am frequently finding myself in the adventure of my life and experiencing many exhilarating surprises with Him in the midst of the many faith challenges that always seem to be a part of the package deal as well...
About 1 1/2 years ago, as we were all praying for each other at the end of the meeting, one of the E. Indian-background Christian musicians that was at one of the networking meetings of local Christian ethnic musicians had a word for me that everything was going to be changing in my life in the coming months. Little did he know that just shortly before that some MAJOR changes had already begun in my life, and it seems that the rest of my life has been in major transition in pretty well every way since then...and continues!
I have no idea where I'm going to end up, but I believe that God is in the process of continuing to rearrange things in my life to continue to bring me into line with His purposes for me in the coming years. It seems to me that He has been in the process of 're-positioning' me and many of you in the past several years and that many of you also have felt like you're about to enter into a new season in your lives, though no one seems to be too sure, yet, what that will look like...we just seem to keep hearing WAIT and TRUST ME....sound familiar???
And His Word says that He wants to do FAR MORE than we have asked or imagined, and that He knows the plans He has for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future, etc., so that is something to look forward to!!
I think of the story of Job, and although he went through devastation in many/all? areas of his life, the end of his life was far more blessed than the first part! I am reminded also of the Scripture in Jer. 31:3,4 which says that God loves us with an everlasting love and draws us with lovingkindess. It says He will build us up again and we will be rebuilt...and that we will again take up our tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful, etc.!!
Although the circumstances He has us go through - and the transitions - are often very difficult/painful and sometimes devastating and often cause us to have to face our biggest fears, they are often also times that are filled with expectation and anticipation at the 'new things' God is about to release us into in His timing, and times where we experience increasing intimacy in Him.
It seems almost everyone I know that deeply loves God, has, these past years, been experiencing increasing afflictions, tribulations and suffering....and yet, in the midst of it, are also growing in their experiences of intimacy with God and learning to find that place of peace, rest and security in Him more quickly than in the past.
So many of you have experienced and ARE experiencing devastating circumstances, and yet in the midst of the pain you are honestly expressing, as well, the hope, faith and deep confidence in the Lord that I continue to hear is SUCH a blessing and encouragement to me!! God is indeed building and strengthening His people in this crucial time! and it is His GRACE that is allowing us to go through these things at this time in order to strengthen us for what is to come.
A depiction of Jesus, our Rock, being our Refuge in the midst of the raging waters, and, as in Deut 33:12, we are finding our security in HIM as He is shielding us and we are RESTING BETWEEN HIS SHOULDERS and experiencing His nurturing, protective and tender care
A verse which really hit me this week and which I had never seen in this way before is Acts 14:22 and it talks about how it is through hardships and suffering that we ENTER the KINGDOM OF GOD. Hmmmm.....very interesting connection!!! What does it all mean?? Not sure about all of that at this point, but the correlation between the two is important to note. I have long seen a deep theology of suffering throughout Scripture, but this verse seems to be touching on a dimension that I had not thought of in this way before.
I want to begin by thanking you all soooo very much for all your continued loving prayers and supportive encouragements as the Lord has been leading you in various ways!! I continue to be sooo deeply touched by His grace and love and sooooo much of it is through YOU guys!!! THANK YOU!!!!!! I'm sooo grateful to God for all of you and pray that you experience even more of His love and grace than I have been experiencing!!!!
And I pray that as you also experience many circumstances which have you facing major fears head-on and have you in places where you are experiencing the JAWS OF DISTRESS as mentioned in the verse at the beginning of this newsletter, that you would also experience His deliverance IN your suffering and Him speaking His love and peace and assurances to your hearts IN your afflictions!
Jesus, our Deliverer
The verse I began with in Job is one that God has repeatedly impressed on my heart that He is doing in my life over the past number of years. I have mentioned this before, as well, that I have sensed that God has been in the process of bringing restoration in my life, in the lives of others and in the Church in these days, as well. A couple of the passages that continue to be impressed on my heart about this are Is.60 & 61...and many more.
Anyway, as I look back over the past year or so, I can definitely see that this is something that God has indeed been doing in various areas of my life!! He is indeed wooing me out of the jaws of distress to a SPACIOUS PLACE FREE FROM RESTRICTION!! I have a deep sense that this is going to continue...and not just for me but for you and for the Church as well as we look to Him!
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Most of you are aware of my recent very successful eye surgery which took place 2 months ago!! and how I can now SEEEEEE with the eye that was BLIND!! I cannot tell you how WONDERFUL this incredible gift continues to be!!!!!! THANK YOU ALL SOOO MUCH for your prayers about that!!, especially as I had to work through various major fears in the process of preparing for that surgery! This has led me to new freedoms emotionally/spiritually in ADDITION to new freedom in actually being able to SEE MORE again, which leads to more freedoms in driving and in other ways again!! PTL!!!
Just a quick update on my eyes...I am planning on having my other eye operated on in about a year. In the meantime, I'm to get some bi-focals this week to enable my current vision in both eyes to improve, since it's still a bit blurry as my eyes have been learning to work together the past couple of months. I haven't been able to do much reading for a long time due to the prior blindness, since before and after the surgery have limited my reading mostly to my work, since it really strains my eyes at this point. The glasses should make a big difference - my vision is to go to 20/20 or even better, apparently!!!
SCOOTER OPENS DOOR FOR MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES
You may recall that around Christmas time (Jan2004), a dear senior friend who died had left me his Scooter, which was a direct answer to a prayer I'd been praying on and off for several years...it was even the same model I had prayed about!
Because even minimal walking and standing are so difficult and painful for me, and have been becoming increasingly so, it is often much easier for me to use my motorized Scooter to do shopping close by than for me to use my car, since I can ride my Scooter right into the stores and don't have to walk or stand in line-ups!
I had barely been out of my house the past 8 years and so got little fresh (though polluted) air, and so this summer since I have been using my Scooter, I have gotten OUTSIDE a LOT and I believe that it is also helping my health to gradually improve to be OUT THERE!!
It has also been an encouragement to actually be able to do some of my own grocery shopping again after not being able to do most of that for several years. Hopefully my Mom doesn't get as worn out this way, either! :) - another increasing freedom!
I also found out that I'm actually able to drive my Scooter into the local movie theatre and able to watch a movie from my Scooter if I want to!! I have not seen a movie in a theatre for many years, cause if I sit in one of the seats, I can't get out of it.
I always need to get a momentum going to enable me to get out of the seat, and I need space for that, which there is not enough of in a theatre. So far I haven't tried this new freedom possibility, cause it's still hard for me to sit that long, even on my comfy Scooter chair, but even just to know the possibility is there is exciting for me! :)
Having my Scooter has also been something God seems to be using to open up all kinds of interesting and very encouraging opportunities for 'divine appt.s' and conversations with folks that I pass along the sidewalks or run into into parks or anywhere I go. I have been amazed at the timely doors He keeps opening up through this! For example, here is an article I wrote about one of the ones that happened a little over a month or so ago...
Endless Opportunities for Artists in the Multicultural Marketplace (click on link)
I have the sense that God is using my disabilities and my Scooter to open new doors of 'street ministry' to me that I hadn't had available to me before since I wasn't able to get out onto the 'street' like I can now!
Several times recently He has also had me 'bump into' people 'out of the blue', who were at the end of their rope and needed someone to care, spend some time with them, listen to them and pray for them. It has been an awesome and humbling privilege to be able to minister to these people that He has sent at these most unexpected times! So I have learned to allow for extra time when I am using my Scooter to run errands, because I never know what kinds of opportunities God will have in store! God is amazing!
My Scooter has also been something that God has been using to give me many opportunities, this summer, to spend actually 'doing things' with various family members! For so many years the only place my family would ever be able to see me was here at my house or if I would go to Mom's. We could never go anywhere or do anything as a family because I couldn't get out. But now they have been packing up my Scooter and we've been going to all kinds of parks in the area and our relationships are continuing to improve! This is and has been a wonderful blessing and another level of restoration that God is doing!!
It so happens that my Mom and siblings and I also enjoy taking pictures and so we have been doing a lot of that this summer!...which brings me to yet another freedom from restriction!! :)
Ever since I was a little kid I have loved taking pictures! When I had my sabbatical about 8 years ago (can it already be THAT long ago!!!??!!!), one of the things I did during that time was take a photography course. I enjoyed it immensely and my instructor, a former official Olympics photographer, really encouraged me in this area and said I had an eye for it... but not long after that my joints kept becoming more deformed. Before long I could no longer get my camera to my face and my picture-taking stopped, to my great sadness. I thought my picture-taking days were over for good!
But then digital cameras came into being and I realized that I could take pictures with them because I could take pictures even though the camera was not held up to my face! Last year I needed to get one for the Gatew*ay Crea*tion Arts Centre business (that we are in the process of developing as a way to reach out into the marketplace both locally and in other countries, especially in countries of the M*s peoples most on our hearts, etc.), and so I got one for that in order to take pictures of products that we want to sell in the future - so we can post them on the web site in order to sell them through the internet, etc.
Anyway, suddenly it dawned on me that I could also use this to further develop my love of photography, and especially since it costs so little to take as many practice shots as you want!! So I have indeed been practicing!! I have LOTS to learn, but have been having sooo much fun taking pictures!!
For me, well-taken photographs draw me to worship God almost faster than any other art form! and taking pictures also draws me to worship God and it is an exhilarating experience for me to join together with God in this process!
So it has been a wonderful new freedom for me and another way that God is RESTORING to me something that was out of my life completely for about 8 years!! And it is soo cool that this is something my family enjoys together!! We are constantly emailing each other our new shots and it's so much fun!
If you want to see some of my amateur shots, here are some of the shots I've taken this summer...keep in mind I have a LOT to learn... : )
Photo Pages - click on the link
As many of you are aware, another freedom from restriction has been how God led me, last year, to develop a new art form (plasticine figurines) to help give me an additional way to express worship to Him and to release creativity, since my piano-playing has been increasingly restricted again due to my continually-deforming fingers/hands, etc.
This has also been an enjoyable way to bless people...Proverbs says that a GIFT OPENS THE WAY FOR THE GIVER. I have certainly found this to be true!!
Following is an article I wrote this summer which tells you about one of the ways that God has been leading me and how He has been using these plasticine figurine gifts to open deeper opportunities to share with my many S*ikh/M*sl*im and other non-Christian friends around Surrey!
Reaching Out into the Multicultural Marketplace Through Art - click on link
This is also something that I've sensed that He has been leading me to develop into a business to help to supplement my income in the future, and also to hopefully provide many friends that are involved in ministries/missions with a supplemental income opportunity as well. We'll see how the Lord leads. It is a matter of taking steps of faith and I'm in the process of finishing laying the foundations and business framework as I'm able. I'm hoping that I can begin to try selling some of the products as early as the beginning of 2005, but we'll see how the Lord leads.
Interestingly, in the past month, there have already been 4 of my local small-business owner friends, including 2 M*sli*ms and one Si*kh, who are very happy for me to put up a display in their shop with a few figurines and some Custom Order forms, and I haven't even talked with the rest of them yet! Who knows what kinds of increasing opportunities/open doors/relationships this might open into as well?
EthniClay - click on the link to see some of the figurines. And to find out more about EthniClay and the story of how it all came about, see the web site. I'm still working on the site and have lots of figurines to add shortly but hope to have the site functioning in the new year, Lord willing...
PLANNING ON HAVING HAND SURGERY IN EARLY 2005
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This is my right hand - holding the palm up...my fingers are almost a 90 degree angle off to the side - they almost look like windshield wipers that are in 'off' position :)
Another increasing 'freedom from restriction' which I feel, at this point, that God may be leading me into, is to have another hand surgery in early 2005!
I was at my new hand surgeon's several days ago for an assessment. I.didn't get sent to my previous hand surgeon, Dr. Groper (appropriate name, hey?), this time...not sure why - maybe he's not out here anymore? Too bad - he is an awesome hand surgeon and great doctor and did some great hand surgeries for me in the past!
Anyway, my new one is Dr. Perey but he also seems nice and capable & looks like a surfer from LA! One of my neighbourhood prayer partners took me to my appt. cause there was too much walking so she took me with my wheelchair. We had a great day together!!
Anyway, it was a very encouraging visit for me and my friend also felt good about the doctor and the surgery he proposed...so that is also very encouraging!
I don't know if you have seen/noticed that in the past couple months my little pinky fingers have been totally veering off to the sides of my hands and I've pretty well no control left of them except to bend them - which of course makes it harder to do everything and they keep bumping into things cause my brain tells them to go beside my other fingers to get out of the way but they 'just don't listen' : ).
My rheumatologist said he thought it was cause the tendons had slid off and said that I would need surgery to correct it, so that's why I was going for the assessment -to see what's possible.
Apparently the x-rays show that all of my fingers on both hands are dislocated (that explains some of the deformity and pain, hey?!! : ) and so he said that they need to put in joint replacements in place of the knuckles where my fingers join my hands but that should help me a LOT with improved mobility in my hands, and even help them not to be as crooked in the future!!
My left fingers aren't as seriously dislocated, yet, but are getting there, and the doctor said I'll probably want those operated on before too long, too, so they don't get as bad as my right hand has become.
So if I get this surgery, which I'm currently planning on doing, hopefully I shouldn't have to learn a computer voice-activated program after all, PTL!! I should be able to keep typing, AND it also means I should soon be able to play piano more again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEEEEE HAAAAAAAAA!!!!! - MORE RESTORATION?!!! and more FREEDOM FROM RESTRICTION!!
So -.I'm praying about when to have it and thinking about possibly in Feb. or early March on my RIGHT HAND, first, since that's the really bad one - cause it's gotten a lot worse cause of using my mouse all the time. (I have to laugh to think that I can still type 100 words a minute with all of my fingers (except my thumbs) dislocated!! God is pretty funny at what He enables!
Just recently I was thinking how everything I do, pretty well, is wrapped up with my hands - my work, writing, playing piano (though I can hardly play at all the past months), plasticine, photography, etc. and thinking God must have a plan to bring further restoration in my hands. Then the morning before I went to the hand surgeon the verse that kept coming to me was the one in Psalms about 'establish the works of our hands, establish the works of our hands', etc
Anyway, the surgery itself is apparently supposed to take about an
hour so it sounds like it would just be day surgery again, as it was for
my previous hand operations. Then it would mean 6 weeks of having splints
and physio. After that it's supposed to be pretty well okay but apparently
just won't be quite as strong as it is now - though it's not exactly very
strong anyway.
I asked about the possible infection possibility, since my body is so
immune compromised as it is and since I'm so easily susceptible to major
infections from even slight skin grazes! So they would do what we did
before my eye surgery and pump me full of antibiotics before and after
surgery again. As much as I don't like that thought, my eye surgery was
successful with that approach and it enabled me to SEE again!!!! And if
it works for my hands, it would be AWESOME to have more use of my hands
again, which I need soo much!!!!!
So I'm probably going to need someone to stay with me during some of those 6 weeks so will see whether perhaps some of my local prayer partners and perhaps my Mom can help me out with that on occasion.
I'm also planning to learn to use the Handi-Dart system so I can get them to take me into physio with my Scooter if I can't get there other ways....more freedom from restriction?!! : )
I had recently asked my rheumatologist whether he thought that I could get my feet/ankles operated on, too, if I did the antibiotics thing before/after. However, he said that's a very complicated surgery at the best of times and wouldn't recommend that I risk it - .sooooo, we'll see what else God has in mind..or maybe it's just a timing thing, for once I get off cortisone, hopefully this coming year!
It's been a busy week of doctor visits - I've been to my family doc, bio medical lab, x rays, dentist and going to my dentist again next week to have some major work done with one tooth, and was at my hand surgeon, and to my eye doctor to get a prescription for a new lens in both sets of glasses for my newly-operated on eye, and then off to the eye glass place. Next year or so I will likely need the other eye operated on as well, so the glasses are supposed to keep my eyes from getting worse in the meantime.
Anyway, I'm very excited about this possibility with my hand and so would appreciate your prayers that God would confirm this direction and work out the details if this is His direction for me. I'm waiting to hear back from the hand surgeon about a surgery date.
Another new freedom just took place a number of weeks ago as well! This has been SUCH a great summer!! I think it's the best one I've had in MANY years!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My neighbourhood prayer partners and I have been talking and praying, for about a year, about going on a weekend retreat together to just have fellowship, worship time and prayer. Even though we meet together regularly for usually about 5 hours at a time weekly and do other things together and email each other all the time, we never feel like we're getting enough time together! : ) We can certainly understand why the believers in the New Testament wanted to meet together every day as able for fellowship!
However, since I have been so confined to my home for so many years because of so many related health issues, etc., I really struggled with fear about trying this for a few days in case I would end up in trouble quite a distance from home, etc.
So finally we decided to try it out for one day, first, at a hotel in our neighbourhood, to see how manageable it was. That way, if I had to go home, I could be close by and not miss out on most of the time together.
Well, my prayer partners packed me and my wheelchair up and we had a WONDERFULLY encouraging time!! And it was manageable!! So we're hoping to do something like this again sometime! - and for more days - another new freedom and more restoration!!!!
OTHER WAYS GOD IS LOOKING AFTER ME
I wanted to also include some other cool ways God has been looking after me lately...He just continually amazes me and melts my heart with how involved He is with our lives!
I had an interesting event happen a little over a week ago while I was out Scooting when I went to pick up my pills and some more paper, etc. from the nearby mall.
My eyes hadn't been working together too well that day for some reason??
As a result, on the way back, at one place it looked like I might be coming to a place where the sidewalk went down a few inches onto the road, so slowed a bit to check to see if I would have to go around. But it looked like it was level at that point, so I kept going but kept looking just in case. However, all at once, before I knew it, I was about 3/4 off the end of the sidewalk with my Scooter and there was no turning back!! I had to keep going forward, so I put my feet out as best I could and I ALMOST made it without tipping! But not quite!
My Scooter ended up tipping over and I ended up on my side on the pavement, unable to get up.
(My Scooter handbook mentions, I don't know how many times, that if this or this happens, my Scooter will tip over and I'll die, etc.) It took me awhile to get enough courage to actually try it but when I did, thanks to the encouragement of some friends and family, I found out it is actually quite hard to tip and is really quite stable!! And I think the reason for their many scares is to protect themselves from potential lawsuits).
However, though their scare tactics are over-rated, falling over with my Scooter COULD potentially be very painful, very dangerous and very costly!
So I DID fall over - But you know what?
Other than a few little scrapes and a number of new bruises, I was okay....My heart was hardly even beating faster than normal!!...I was barely even shook up even though I just experienced a couple of big fears...1 - tipping off my Scooter, 2 - me landing on the ground and unable to get up and 3 - possibly more seriously injuring my back!
But you know, my back is just fine, I think, and it almost felt like I must have landed on a cloud or an angel because when I hit the ground I barely felt it....and I know I have a lot of padding but I've never felt this light before when I've fallen!!! I've never felt this light even when I was a little kid!!
Immediately a woman got out of her car and came and got my Scooter set up and made sure I was alright, and then a guy came over and the two of them actually were able to get me up!!
My Scooter basket was somewhat bent but that was easy to remedy when a good friend bent it back to its original shape, and the rest of my Scooter seems to be working just fine!!
I immediately went home to tend to my scrapes with hydrogen peroxide and my antibiotic cream to prevent me from getting my usual serious infections, and PTL that seemed to be the end of that as well!!
I was feeling stiff and very tired the next few days, but my back was fine and I have now recovered from that incident and seem to be back to my normal...PTL!!
Anyway, I felt like God was with me through the whole thing and even though this could have been very traumatic and very painful and very costly, and possibly my Scooter could have been a serious pain to try to get home if it hadn't been working, I really felt like God was looking after me through it all! and I wasn't even fearful! I can hardly believe how little this seems to have affected me physically or emotionally! I had such peace!! That has got to be God cause here were a few of my big fears all wrapped into one incident and I'm just fine!!!
It has been an interesting summer financially, as well.
As you may remember, my supporting church gave me notice last year that this year they would need to drastically reduce my financial support since they now have so many missionaries to support. It has been soo encouraging to hear how God continues to move my church forward re missions!! They also have a worship & arts dept. and so I'm hoping to meet with them shortly to discuss ways that I can hopefully assist them in marrying the two in some ways, as well, and perhaps doing some summer teams or internships together, etc., among other things.
Anyway, this financial drop came into effect several months ago and has made a big difference in my finances. Also, financial support over the summers is usually lower at the best of times so it has been another thing to encourage me to keep my eyes on Jesus...yet again and again He continues to encourage me that He is my Provider and will continue to provide what I need as I depend on Him to do so.
I keep being reminded of 2 Cor 9:8...And God is able to make all grace abound to you, SO THAT....in ALL things...at ALL times....having ALL THAT YOU NEED....you WILL ABOUND in every good work!
Following are some of the things He has been doing so far...and I trust He will continue to provide for all of the extra that is needed, and raise up the additional financial support needed as He thinks best.
One of the ways He has been encouraging me during the past few months is by suddenly sending a number of unexpected generous money gifts from folks who haven't provided financial support before, and some unexpected large gifts from others who have provided previously!!....and the timing has been amazing!!
One couple, for example, sent me a large chunk of money to assist with vitamin supplements and other current health costs!!
Another way is that He has begun to put it on the hearts of a couple new folks to begin to become regular financial supporters!!
(If any of you sense that He is leading you to do so, as well, and would like to receive tax deductible receipts for that, please let me know and I will send you further info on how to do that. Thank you soo much!!) GCWAC@DiscipleTheNations.org
All of these ways and all of these people have been such an encouragement to me!! And those that continue to faithfully provide for me through the years continue to amaze me with their faithfulness and love and kind generousity!!!
I believe God uses so many ways! because He doesn't want us to box Him in!
Following are some other ways which have really blessed me, as well!
For a number of months my office chair has been getting more and more difficult and more painful to sit on! It began getting harder and harder to work at my computer for this reason. Especially the fact that it began to increasingly feel like it was literally tipping me off the front of the chair, and so my legs would always be stiff while I'd be working because I had to keep from falling off the front! I also was scared that because of this my chair might unexpectedly fly out behind me sometime as I was trying to sit down and then I'd end up helpless on the floor and perhaps seriously injured!
I could not figure out how a chair could possibly go from being a straight chair to one that seemed to be tipping me out, so I thought for some time that it must just be my imagination, so stuck with it, although my chair was getting creakier and creakier. I was beginning to think maybe I needed to replace it anyway before it would fall apart on me.
One day several weeks ago I finally turned it over to see if it WAS possible for it to be tipping me out...and sure enough! The frame was not only seriously BENT but seriously CRACKED!!
As soon as I saw that, I knew I needed to get it replaced that same day or the next day and shouldn't sit on the chair I had any more because I knew it was dangerous! I felt God protected me from ending up hurting myself on that chair by letting me finally see what the problem was!
But for me to get a replacement chair right aways was an overwhelming thought because it takes so much walking to walk to the back of Office Depot where the office chairs are and I didn't know who I could ask to do it for me on such short notice. Just the whole thought of having to take care of this on such short notice totally tired me out because it seemed like soo much effort...and energy I didn't have. So I prayed and asked God what I should do.
I felt like He impressed on me that I should check which chair I wanted on the internet, call Office Depot and ask them to put it up front for me, and then go in and check it out. So that's what I did!
I basically got the same kind of chair I had before, which I'd used constantly the past 8 years or so, and it was still about the same price it had been then!
When I got to the store, I tried the chair out. Because my arm, wrist and finger joints don't work properly, I'm not able to make the adjustments on the chair while I'm sitting on it so asked them if they could adjust it for me. I really liked the chair and it felt good the way they had adjusted it. So I decided to get it...it also turned out to be $60 cheaper there than it had been on the internet!!!
I asked when they could deliver it and they said the next day. T said that they would ship it to me in a box and I would have to put it together. I told them I am not able to do that because of my hands and very limited strength. So they said, well, if they were able to get it into my car, I could take it RIGHT THEN and it was already all set up for me!
So they tried putting it in my car and WAAA LAAA! It fit just fine!!!!!
When I got home, I managed to slide it off my car seat onto the driveway and wheel it into my office, and have been using the chair ever since!! It makes SUCH a difference!!!!!
Anyway, I was so touched at how God worked it all out sooo well for me!
To make it even better, gas prices had been so high on the way there that I had decided to wait till it came down to get some. On the way home it had gone down over $.20 per litre so I got that, too!! I just felt sooo blessed and that God was encouraging me yet again that He was going to look after me!
GOD's AMAZING CARE IN PROVIDING 'CUSTOM-ORDERED' SHIRTS!!
Then another way He encouraged me and provided for me happened about 2 weeks ago...
Because I have gotten so large due to the cortizone and health issues, etc., I have had only about 2 shirts I've been able to wear for the past couple years. And now one of them was beginning to wear through.
So I knew that at this time of the year every year, one store for larger women always has a very good sale on. So I called to see if they had the sale on and it had just ended but they still had some of the clothes left at the sale price till they were gone.
So I went to the store and just before I got to the parking lot I prayed that God would enable me to find something of the same or almost the same style, in the right size, at a good price, and hopefully in white. I even specified that I preferred that it would be in the same material as what I had had before!, since that material breathes and is very comfortable...but the likelihood of that was sooo minute because I had bought the other one there about 3 years ago and they change stock constantly.
Anyway, that was my prayer and I only had enough energy and strength in my legs for a quick walk in and a quick overview around the room and that's about it...
Well, God obviously got there ahead of me!!
When I got to the store, there was ONE RACK of clothes on the sidewalk right outside the store door by the handicapped parking, so I checked it out...
Guess what??!
Almost ALL of the shirts on that rack were almost the identical style I had asked God for!!! MANY of them were my size! I had the choice of white, black, pink, navy, red, and a few other colors! They were the EXACT material I had prayed for! And they were marked down another 50% off at the till from the LOWEST sale price!!
Soooo....I ended up with 4 colors of the shirt for LESS THAN $40!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was ECSTATIC!!!! and I just felt like God was smiling all over because He knew how excited He had made me by answering my specific prayer soooooooooo specifically!
Needless to say, He saved me MANY steps and much energy and in less than 10 minutes I had paid for the shirts and was on my way home, sooo encouraged by God's amazing personal touches!!!
The He surprised me with yet another unexpected provision!
My Mom regularly plays Scrabble and prays with one of her long-time friends (in her 80's) who also lives in her townhouse complex. Their prayers usually include their families, etc. and so I am included in their prayers as well.
For some reason God has seemingly really put me on my Mom's friend's heart and not too long ago she asked my Mom if she wanted to join her in putting on a garage sale and giving the proceeds to me! So they did that and both of them were so excited about it! It really touched me! They made $100 and gave it to me!
My Mom's friend had also baked a bunch of cookies to sell at the sale, but not all of them sold, so, amazingly, she bought the rest of the cookies (as I understand it) FROM HERSELF and also gave THAT money to me as well!!! This totally touched me!!
You just never know how God will provide!!
Then just shortly after that another long-time friend of my Mom's that our family has been friends with since we were kids, out of the blue gave my Mom a gift certificate for a local grocery store and asked my Mom to get me groceries with it!!
Others are giving me their used CDs for me to use as bases/platforms for the plasticine figurines I'm making.
God just is so creative in the ways He provides, and because so much of this has happened just after I told Him I would trust Him again with my finances even in the midst of the big dip this summer, I believe He has just been reassuring me again and again that He has it in control and will put me on people's hearts as He desires. So at this point He has given me peace and I'm experiencing confidence in my Provider, by His grace.
GOD TURNS MY DISABILITY INTO AN OPPORTUNITY
It is also amazing me how God seems to be using my actual disabilities, more and more, to open doors of opportunity to minister to people, as I stated earlier with my Scooter, too!
Another blatant example of this and how God uses what the enemy means for evil, for GOOD, is what He did a couple weeks ago!
I had another appt. with my eye doctor and I really don't like that parking lot because the parking money machine is impossible for me to put the money into with my hands and fingers as disfigured and weak as they are. So I always have to wait for someone to come and put the money in for me, and sometimes that takes awhile!
That morning on the way there I had been praying for God to direct my steps that day, and also was praying that God would provide someone to help me with the money as soon as I got there.
Well, when I drove up to the parking money machine, sure enough, there was a guy walking right towards me! So I felt confident that this man was my answer to prayer and asked him if he'd help me with the money. He was very willing to help and went to go and do that... but came back saying he's from the US and didn't know how this machine worked, so I explained it to him and he went and did it and then came back with the ticket.
Upon his return I asked him where he was from in the States, and what had brought him up here, and it turned out he had moved here several months earlier in a desire to work up here and live here.
Unfortunately, due to the strictness of getting work visas in Canada, he had been unable to get one and therefore couldn't get work and couldn't even get jobs washing dishes. So as he was trying to sort through all the red tape, all of his money had run out and when I met him he was about 3 days from ending up living on the street. He couldn't afford to move back to the US or move forward or anything, and was desperate.
We talked for quite awhile and I was getting concerned about my eye appt. because I knew I was getting later, but kept thinking about the story about the Good Samaritan and felt like I should stay there and listen to him a bit longer and seek to encourage him, etc. So I did, and God worked it all out when I finally did get in for my appt.
Anyway, the conversation with this man was very enlightening and it turned out that he had had some Christian input somewhere along the line. When I asked whether he would mind if I talked with some of my local pastor/ministry friends to see whether someone could help with temporary accommodations and perhaps some finances to help him as he figured out what he had to do next, he was very open to that and welcomed it. (Later that week as we kept communicating, it turned out he was actually a new believer and it seems to me God may indeed be moving him in the direction of missions since he has a very compassionate servant-heart it seems...even while he was here he was apparently volunteering his help in a local street ministry (I didn't know this when we first met). He has taught ESL overseas and has travelled to about 90 countries, as I understand it, and eventually wants to spend his life overseas teaching ESL and serving in other ways, etc.)
So when I got home I emailed some of my local friends in ministry to get the needs out, and within a couple of days some dear friends found a place for him to stay temporarily in WA and he is currently staying in the dorms in a Bible school there while looking for work and seeing how God works things out. I also have some house church networker friends in that region that are willing to help if he is still in need of help at the end of the month. It is sooo cool how the Body can work together to meet needs that God brings to our attention and leads us to get involved in!
When this guy and I had our first conversation in the parking lot, I had told him that I felt he was an answer to prayer to help put my money in the machine, and I told him that I had prayed that God would direct my day and here we met...He had said, too, that as we had started talking, he had felt encouraged that this was a divine appt. - he didn't use those words but something like that...and I could see that he was getting more hope even as we talked. I was just so humbled by the opportunity to be able to reach out to this guy with God's love in such an unexpected situation, and it was a blessing to be able to bless him back for blessing me!
What totally kept amazing me, too, is that if my hands would have been normal, although God COULD have had us meet in other circumstances, He chose to use my actual disability to give me this opportunity to minister to this guy. As a result, he has met several of my local Christian friends who have also ministered to him and he is and has been meeting more in the US to surround and encourage him and support him during one of his very lowest times in his life!
When I met him he said he could hardly even get up in the mornings anymore because he was already so depressed and feeling so hopeless and not knowing where to turn! I believe God just wanted to show him that He loves him and is looking after him.
God is amazing and can use anything for His glory! It's all about about Him and our inedequacies only serve to give Him greater opportunity to reveal to others that HE is the Treasure inside these earthen vessels!!
Remember Chris, from Kansas, who has been up here twice in the past few years to intern with us here?
He was up again this summer for a week to visit his Arabic-speaking Christian friends and for us two to re-connect / catch up and keep praying together about what God has in mind for us in the future in terms of him hopefully moving up here again in God's timing so that we can work together...
It was a WONDERFULLY ENCOURAGING time together and we continue to pray for and seek God's timing and direction for the future.
I was unexpectedly blessed this summer to suddenly be contacted by a couple of dear Indian brothers who were coordinating the first international Christian convention for S. Asians of Indian-background/decent, which they held here in Vancouver this summer to encourage S. Asians regarding missions, etc.!
It was a blessing to have them over, get to know them a bit and to hear their hearts and feel their passion for what they were anticipating in this convention!
And it was a blessing to be able to give them some ideas, network them with folks who might be able to assist them further and to provide for them some resources which they could make available to those that were coming to the conference to assist them in further developing in evangelistic/missions directions, etc., especially their musicians/artists.
When they were over they were intrigued by the plasticine figurines all over my house, and asked whether I would consider making 10 of them with missions themes, with Indian characters and Indian themes, to put at the front of their stage to add another artistic aspect to the convention.
This was an absolute delight to do as one way that I could contribute to this event which I wanted to support however I could. It was fun to pray about what to create and they were able to give them to their volunteer staff as a thankyou for their help after the convention.
I'm very encouraged by this relationship that has begun between us and we believe that God wants to give us opportunities to work together again in some ways in the future as He leads in His timing - perhaps by doing similar things for future conventions which they might plan in the future, whether locally here or overseas.
A major thing on my heart for many years has been mentored, holistic leadership development/discipleship, etc. which has been something that I have invested in over the years as the Lord has brought those desiring to be in this type of relationship. I have been blessed beyond measure with the relationships God has provided in these types of internships, etc. and have also learned so much from those being mentored!
Interestingly, as I'm sensing God transitioning me into a new season, though I don't exactly know what that will all look like, I'm getting the impression that it's going to involve a lot more of this on various levels.
One indication is that in the past months, I have kept getting more and more emails from folks from all over the globe that are asking about the possibility of doing an internship with me here or with others I'm connected with overseas. So this is something I'm praying about...timing is a major factor here because it takes a LOT of time and energy.
Maybe you are wondering what I do most of the time since you usually hear about more personal things and less about ministry aspects...
I thought I would update you a bit, again, on some of this as well.
My main roles are that of networking, consulting, researching, resource development, partnership development, coordination and facilitation, training, etc.
NETWORKING, NEWSLETTERS & WEB SITES
I do most of the networking through the free e-newsletters I send out:
+ Ethnic Worship & Arts Focus newsletter - (monthly since Nov98) - goes out to over 1000 Christian musicians/artists/arts supporters, missions leaders, church planters, ethnomusiocologists, missionaries, worship leaders, worship & arts ministry leaders, Christian music/arts educators, etc. internationally. Click on the link to find out more about the newsletter. If you would like to subscribe, please let me know.
+ 'Christianity & the Arts' e-resources - bi-weekly (or monthly - whichever I have time for that mth.)- with a focus on networking and resourcing local Christian musicians/artists and other Lower Mainland Christians interested in Christianity and the Arts. Click on the link to find out more info about it and to see sample editions. Let me know if you would like to subscribe.
+ Lower Mainland Ethnic Ministries Network update - usually a couple times a month - goes to over a hundred Lower Mainland ethnic / multicultural ministries leaders - includes upcoming events, provides networking opportunities, related articles, resources, reports on what's happening, presents opportunities to partner together, needs and items available, etc. Let me know if you'd like to subscribe.
+ Canadian House Church Resource Network newsletter - 3 or 4 times a year - goes out internationally as well though the focus is on encouraging, networking and resourcing Canadians that God is moving in these directions. Includes related articles about what God is doing in Canada and in other nations re house churches, provides resources, networking opportunities, upcoming events, etc.
I also network through email and the internet and through my DiscipleTheNations web site, which is a Great Commission Resources web site which includes, under it, the various aspects that I'm involved with, such as the:
+ Great Commission
Worship & Arts Center (GCWAC) - click on link for more info
+ Ethnic
Worship & Arts Focus - (EW&AF) - click on link
for more info
The two above are the main ministries I'm involved with through the mission that I'm with (not mentioned for sec*urity reasons), but the following ones are also very closely connected / integrated in various ways and they also compliment each other. These I do on the side as able.
+
Lower Mainland Ethnic Ministries Network - (LMEMN) - at this point
it only means sending out the e-updates, researching and adding resources
to the web site. I also sent out an initial free e-Directory which I compiled
of those in the region that are receiving the updates. Click on link for
more info
+ Canadian House Church Resource Network - CHCRN (which has since been changed to the CHCN) - at this point this basically means responding to those that contact me through the web site and sending out occasional e-newsletters, though that may change again in the future, depending on how the Holy Spirit leads. Click on link for more info.
Along with the Great Commission Worship & Arts Center and the Ethnic Worship & Arts Focus, I'm also part of the facilitation team (and have been for nearly a decade) of the
+ International Worship & Arts Network (IWAN) - formerly the AD2000 Worship & Arts Network
and am one of the resource people for the recently created:
+ International Council of Ethnodoxologists - The vision of ICE, an association for global Christian worship, is that Christians from every culture will have the opportunity to express their faith through their own heart music and arts. To further this vision, we seek to promote the application of insights drawn from the field of ethnomusicology, worship studies, and other disciplines in Christian ministries worldwide.
ICE was formed by several of my long-time colleagues in missions/music.
Both of these are completely integrated into what I am already doing with the GCWAC & EW&AF.
Another way I have been involved in networking over the past few years has been to facilitate local networking meetings such as:
+ Lower Mainland Prayer Network re Music, the Arts and Media - this was taking place monthly at my home for about a year or so until early in 2004 when things became so uncertain due to my upcoming eye surgery. I have since felt to put this on hold temporarily - until perhaps sometime next year. Click on link for more info. The meetings we have had have been very encouraging and I look forward to seeing more of this happening in the future again!!
+ Resource Networking Fellowships for Local Multi-Ethnic Christian Musicians & Artists - click on link for more info - I also facilitated these meetings for about a year or so before my health issues again caused me to have to temporarily put these on hold. I believe that these may be starting up again in the coming year as well but am praying for God's timing. The meetings we have had have been very encouraging and I look forward to seeing more of this happening in the future again!!
+ Int'l Prayer Day for Musicians & Artists - this past year there were Christian music/arts leaders around the world in various cities/nations coordinating these prayer days, and although we had a very small turn-out here this year, it was VERY encouraging for those of us that were a part of it (2 of us this time: ) )! I believe this is something that I will be a part of facilitating again in the future and am praying about God's timing for that as well.
Another aspect that I am involved with is consulting those that contact me regarding any of the aspects that I'm involved with, but especially regarding music and the arts and missions.
I listen to what's on their hearts, find out what I can about their previous experiences and training - whether formal or informal, listen to what they sense God is putting on their hearts regarding the future, and then seek to give them some options as to some potential next steps for them to take.
I do this by providing resources for them by pointing them to appropriate web sites or related ministries, by networking them to appropriate people/ministries, by recommendating various training options which I think would be suitable to them, by brain storming with them, by connecting them with various potential practical opportunities where they are or internationally, depending on how the Lord is leading. Sometimes this is done through one email, but more often than not it begins another relationship where I give on-going counsel as they request it.
NETWORKING & PARNTERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
As I come across folks in the area (by word of mouth or by coming across them in my internet research) that sound like they share similar vision, I contact them and try to arrange to meet with them to find out what's on their heart, share what's on my heart, and together we prayerfully consider ways in which we may be able to partner together to move forward in these directions - and network them with others in the region that may share similar vision as well. We then begin to take steps together as the Lord leads.
I'm in the process of talking further with our mission and with my supporting church and others, and other local Christian music/worship/arts leaders, local Christian arts educators, etc. about some specific proposals of ways that we can potentially work together in the future, as well. Please pray for God's wisdom, confirmations and timing on the things HE wants us to do together to build up His Body and to reach the lost and hurting all around us.
There are also different ways that I partner together with various ministries and events internationally as the Lord opens and confirms opportunities...such as providing resources and networking opportunities for various music/arts conferences, etc.
I really enjoy research and since I am constantly sending out newsletters and networking, developing resources and training materials, etc., research is a big part of what I do. As I'm able to put resources together, hopefully it is saving many others a lot of time since they don't have to do that kind of research from scratch (such as church planters who don't have time to do research but need the kinds of resources that I'm able to provide).
Another aspect of what I do is helping to promote, through the newsletters and web site, related ministries, training opportunities, resources, and appropriate musical/artistic products such as ethnic / multicultural worship music CDs, etc. For example, I am the CDN distributor of one of the worship CDs that one of our mission's church planting teams recorded of the local national's own worship songs which they had written several years ago in a M*s*m country in Africa.
Another thing that I have been spending a lot of time doing over the years is developing resources to assist musicians and artists, arts supporters and arts educators as much as possible in helping to train and release musicians and artists into what God is calling them into as biblically-established musicians & artists in His Big Picture.
Some of the resources include, or have included:
+ the newsletters - as mentioned above
+ the web sites
+ many Articles (click on link for more articles) that I have been writing and continue to write. Some of the recent ones are included earlier in this newsletter. Another one: A Way for Artists to Encourage and Reach Out to Multicultural Children & Their Families (click on link)
+ Directories: I'm about to send out the first free e-Directory of Lower Mainland Christian Musicians, Artists & Arts Supporters/Worship & Arts Ministries, etc. which I've been compiling this past year. Hopefully this will assist and encourage the artists as well as help to provide ready musical/arts resources for the Body at large locally.
I have begun to discuss with some other Canadian Christian music/arts leaders the possibility of also putting together a Canadian-wide one in the future to encourage and support the Body nationally.
The goal of these directories and resources and networking, etc. is to use various components which compliment each other and in so-doing assist in strengthening and bringing together passionate, Christ-centered, godly Christian artists, and supporting the Body, from which the Living Water will then be able to more effectively and increasingly overflow into the marketplace locally, nationally and beyond.
It has long been felt by many around the world that one of God's main destinies for Canada is for her to help in 'bringing healing to the nations'. I believe this is so and I believe that God wants to use His artists as a vital part of that!
By networking and resourcing them, by providing training opportunities and encouraging them, by providing opportunities for them to develop community among themselves and increasingly develop their relationships within the Body of Christ, by God's grace they will also be increasingly effective in reaching out into the marketplace...locally and beyond.
+ training materials - see more under TRAINING below...
Several of my international colleagues and I have been in the process of developing various training materials and training options for Christian musicians and artists over the years. We are in the process of putting together various packages aimed at various groups of people, at various levels of interest, for different lengths of time needed, etc.
For example, there may be a weekend training package for worship & arts ministries and their churches; or a one day training which includes various seminars and workshops for missionary candidates. Or there may be a week-long training package specifically for missionaries interested in utilizing and encouraging the development of ethnic worship music in their church planting situations, or perhaps there is a church which wants to send out a team of artists on a summer mission. Each group would require different aspects of training.
Over the years we have been developing various aspects of these types of training and are hoping to put them into training packages/resources which can also be easily adaptable to various situations internationally and which can also be easily reproducible.
For example, some aspects we want to develop into Powerpoint presentations or CDs, DVDs, etc. Some of us are in the process of writing books...some of them are already finished and some are still in process - such as the one I've been in the process of writing for numerous years about the Utilization of Ethnic Music & The Arts as a Vital Part of Church Planting in the M*sm World....(although much of what is going to be included will also be helpful for those working with any other group as well).
Various aspects of these training resources have already been field-tested in pertinent situations and also tested in well-known schools and training centers, and we are very encouraged by the affirmations to continue in these directions.
Another aspect of training, of course, too, is the internship aspect mentioned earlier in the newsletter.
Another aspect of the training under development is an online Self-Directed Study about Music, the Arts & Media and the Great Commission. The hope is that eventually it will become an online Distance Learning course with qualified instructors (numerous ones having their PhDs) and which is able to be accredited as well, if some want that. I have not worked on this for the past year but feel that this is something I'm to work on some more again in the coming months/year.
This may be something we provide as both an accredited course of training - for those willing to pay for the personal input of their well-qualified instructors, and also which we also keep as free online self-directed study version where folks can go through it as they desire.
Although I have been doing a lot of coordinating/facilitating of events - especially networking types of events - the past several years, since this year has been so uncertain due to health issues, etc., I had felt, this spring, that I was to temporarily put on hold further coordination/facilitation of events and continue to tie up loose ends to help simplify and streamline things for myself this coming year. I believe this is a very important part of my transitioning process to free me to really move ahead full steam once God releases me into the 'new season'...which I THINK may happen sometime next year...
So at present I'm still having occasional personal visits to meet with new local Christian musicians/artists and local Christian music/arts leaders, etc., but other than that I'm not coordinating more events/meetings, etc. until I sense God is releasing me to do that again...which I suspect MAY be in spring of 2005 or so?
Another way God seems to keep working in my life over the years is to have me develop something here, do it once or over a period of time to see how effective it is, and then have me develop something else, do it once and then on and on like that...
This has often frustrated me because once I've done something once, such as having the prayer networking meetings here for a year or so, I want to see it continue when I see that it is being effective. I also want to see it develop further!
Sometimes He lets me continue, but not always...and sometimes He lets me continue after there has been a break...but I also have to be willing to let it go if that's what He wants...even though I haven't had a chance to develop it fully as I envision it to become. Sometimes it is hard letting go, but it is getting easier to do so as I realize that this seems to be a part of what He has called me to.
Anyway, I feel like He has impressed on my heart that since He has made me a visionary and able to implement vision, by His grace, one of the ways He seems to use me is to give me an idea, enable me to develop it, then write about it and pass on the idea to others who can then take the idea, adapt it to their situations, and run with it if God is stirring their hearts in that direction.
Since a core value I have is to make things 'easily reproducible', I see that this is one way that God can indeed use me, though I very rarely get out, to see the ideas He gives me potentially be reproduced in many other settings around the world. This really helps me not to get so frustrated when I feel He is once again putting the breaks on things just when I feel ready to go again! Kindof reminds me of Philip who was whisked away from the successful evangelistic movement going on where he was, to go to be with the eunuch - another new and small start...
It seems like most of my adult life has been developing and laying foundations and implimenting visions, only to have to start over again on something else just when things are almost where I want them. I see ways to improve and can hardly wait to do that and then He whisks me off to start laying foundations for something else - though always seemingly very closely related to each other...
FOR THOSE WHO ARE NOT AWARE OF MY JOURNEY RE THE ARTS...
More
about my background: Bio - click on link
More about
my core values - click on link
GOD PROVIDES MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARTISTIC EXPRESSION
One of the exciting shifts that has happened in the past months (because of the uncertainty of my eye surgery date and health issues, and sensing God was wanting to pull me out of my coordinating/facilitating roles temporarily in order for me to spend more time 'tying up loose ends' and simplifying things in order to enable me to be released to 'fly' once He releases me into my 'new season'), has been that He has been giving me more opportunities to use my creativity in artistic ways!
For the past many years I have been so busy with administrative and coordinating/facilitating aspects that I had very little time to express creativity through artistic ways.
Interestingly, early this year I had felt that God was going to be giving me more time to use the artistic gifts He's given me, in the future....but I had no idea how that would come about. I told Him I'd love to do that but He would have to work it out cause I wasn't sure how He wanted me to re-arrange my schedule to accommodat that. Then I basically forgot about it.
Recently as I thought about my summer and how much time I have spent taking pictures with my family on weekends, making plasticine figurines in the evenings, writing articles, etc., I could see that God has indeed been doing that without me even consciously changing my schedule!
Interestingly, all of the artistic things I'm doing are also very connected to my work and giving me increased insights to help me better understand and encourage artists in various ways. And as mentioned earlier, the plasticine figurines, for example, are one of the ways that God is using to open more doors of ministry and deepening relationships with my non-Christian friends in the region...something which I can easily see as something that artistic church planters overseas could do with their artistic gifts, as well, if the Lord leads them in these ways...
It has been such a joy and has been reviving my spirit to have these added opportunities to release artistic creativity, as well!
About 3 years ago or so, I felt God gave me a dream one night which really helped me to get a better emotional grasp of His heart for His art - and His heart as an Artist - THE ARTIST....
Many times artists do not really feel validated as artists, and for most of my life, even though I had played piano for much of my life, I didn't even usually think of myself as a 'musician' even though I was in bands and travelling internationally with one of the bands, and even though we had recorded a couple albums and tapes!
It's only as God has gradually been revealing Himself to me, over the past 8 or so years, as God the Artist - in various ways, that I have really felt increasingly and deeply affirmed and validated as an artist. Interestingly, it is since He has been revealing Himself to me in these ways that the artistic expressions coming out of me are growing and increasing as well. The Bible says we become like that which we behold (not necessarily those words), and it seems that since this is one of the ways I seem to keep seeing Him more clearly, the more it seems He is able to release more of His creativity through me, as well.
Anyway, in the dream I felt He gave me, it was almost like He was taking me with Him on a flight through the air over much of Canada's amazing wildernesses where no one sees most of His art except for Him and His angels!
In my dream He was showing me the many varieties of intricate trees and flowers He had created! And He had me survey huge, towering mountains and tiny gorgeous particles of sand! He displayed for me incredible assortments and sizes of His animals and birds and I was enthralled by the landscapes, mountains and valleys, waters and skies He had created...and the ways He had arranged them....so wild and wonderful and each so different! He showed me the many different shapes and colors and had me feel many of the different textures. He let me hear the many awesome sounds - the many different bird sounds, the sounds of crashing waves and quiet breezes, the sounds of earthquakes with new mountain forms being created and then the peaceful silence of watching watching white, fluffly clouds go by or relaxing under the stars in the ptich darkness! His art elicited such powerful emotional and spiritual responses!
It just went on and on and it was mind -boggling to behold His art with Him! I was absolutely overwhelmed with worship of Him at His incredible love expressed to mankind through His absolutely beautiful and powerfully moving art!
The first characteristic we read about God in Gen. 1:1 is that He is the Artist. Romans 1 tells us that because of God's art, we are 'without excuse' - His art is THAT powerful and gives us enough revelation of who He is to cause us to be 'without excuse'....incredible!
But even more than being overwhelmed with His love expressed through the beauty, grandeur and majesty of His art, I was overcome with HIS incredible delight at the art He had made, and how it made HIM feel to create it! HIS heart was filled with joy as He just had let His imagination go wild in the mult-dimensional and multi-sensory art He had created...with all of its glorious and diverse components!!
I felt soo privileged that He would take me on this personal tour with Him to show me His art and express to me HOW HE FELT ABOUT IT....I experienced Him as God the Artist, and when I woke up, I was in tears and in absolute silent awe of Him.
From that day on, something changed in my heart and my own sense of call as one of His artists was GREATLY strengthened. I also became more passionate about encouraging and validating artists in their God-given calling as artists, and encouraging them to be all that God is calling them to be as His godly artists in this world which is in desperate need of art which reflects God's glory!
This dream just helped to more deeply establish the biblical underpinnings of what He has already been building in my heart over the years regarding the vital role God has for His artists and for the arts in His purposes in the earth in encouraging people to become whole-hearted, total-life worshippers of Jesus Christ!
For Him to give me more time to express artistic creativity this summer has been just another way that He has further validated me as an artist and encouraged me to keep going in the directions He has been leading me for so many years already in encouraging His artists locally and overseas.
As is usually the case in summer, in addition to seeing a local folks, I tend to have a lot of out-of-town/out-of-country guests coming to visit! These are such wonderful times of blessing and fellowship!!!!
I'm always amazed at how God brings so many people to come visit...I sometimes think it's because He knows I can't get out to see them! I am soo grateful to all of you who have come and if I have not seen you in a long time, maybe He'll bring YOU next!! :)
My family has been going through all kinds of things the past months as well...for example, my sister re-married and she and my niece have moved into the interior where her husband is from. They seem to be settling in very well, for which we are very grateful! My nephew is currently living here with his Dad and seems to be doing okay as well, with visits to see his Mom.
Please pray for my younger brother who started to suddenly get very ill in the summer of 2003, when his muscles began to get increasingly weak, etc. Then about 6 months ago, suddenly he ended up in intensive care and nearly died. It is now about 6 months later, he has not been able to work since, and doctors still do not know what's wrong with him. His muscles are getting worse and worse and he is hardly able to walk or climb stairs anymore. He is now off short term disability as it has come to its end, and in order to get onto long term disability he has to prove that he is ill enough for that. However, since the doctors still do not know what is wrong with him, this seems to be presenting a problem in terms of providing proof for eligibility for long term disability. Therefore he is currently in financial straights as he has had a huge drop in income since the short term disability claim ended a couple weeks ago. Please pray that God would intervene and get him a diagnosis this week, Lord willing, provide some proof of his health issues and enable him to either get onto long-term disability ASAP or provide some other financial resources until a longer term solution is found. Thank you!!
My father and his wife's health is also very poor and they are also in need of prayer. A major answer to prayer is that several months ago I had my first good visit with him that I can ever remember having with him since I was young! There is a long way to go, but I believe God is also in the process of bringing restoration there.
Last year after praying for him in tears one night, I felt that God gave me a dream in which it symbolized God doing an amazing work of His grace in our relationship...and that is indeed what seems to be beginning. Interestingly, a song in the dream, which I felt was very symbolic of what the dream was about, was "AMAZING GRACE". I'm praying for God to reveal His amazing grace and love to my Dad's heart and I sooo desire to see his heart healed from much pain in his past and see him enjoying his future with a growing relationship with God and with his kids.
There are also other very major faith challenges others in my family are going through but which I don't feel at liberty to share in a newsletter. Thank you soo much for your prayers!!!!
Slowing Down Somewhat & Tying Up Loose Ends (Putting My House in Order)
As you have seen earlier in this newsletter, and in several previous updates, it seems that this past year God has been having me pull back on the reins (or HE is pulling back on the reins) to some degree for a time.
I believe a major focus of this time is to bring especially spiritual/emotional 'rest', restoration and renewed energy for what He has in mind for me in the coming months/years... ie. those that WAIT ON THE LORD WILL RENEW THEIR STRENGTH....they will rise up with wings as eagles; they will run and not grow weary...they will walk and not faint...
One of His main encouragements to me in various aspects has been to continue to WAIT...while at the same time continuing to greatly affirm the directions I'm heading into and encouraging me again and again that He will bring His purposes to pass as I wait for Him, put my trust in Him, and follow His lead STEP BY STEP - not striving by self-effort or running ahead, but doing what He asks me to do along the way and watching with anticipation for HIM to DO what HE wants to do... it is an exciting process! In Habakkuk 2 it talks about WAITING for the vision to come into being...it says that though we must wait for it, it will come to pass..
Also, you probably remember me saying how He has been having me PUT MY HOUSE IN ORDER - tying up loose ends and simplifying my life - in every area of my life over the past number of years.
This process continues and the more loose ends I am tying up, the more excited, freed up, prepared and encouraged I feel in terms of my ability to 'fly' once He has me in the 'new season' - which I believe is greatly wrapped up with the on-going development of the Gat*eway Crea*tion Arts Centre and related aspects. I feel like He is gradually releasing me from things that have unwittingly encumbered me in the past, FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS which I believe He's bringing me into.
A couple of my neighbourhhood prayer partners who have also been going through some long wilderness seasons of 'rest' and WAITING on God, too, have just suddenly, in the past short while, been seemingly flung into such a busy schedule that they almost don't know what hit them. If they had not had this time of waiting on God and resting in Him while they felt He was slowing them down and simplifying their lives, we wonder whether they would have been prepared for this? Even now it is a matter of constantly having to trust in/rely on God and His strength...but if they had not been prepared by this long period of a major focus on Him, would they have been prepared?
I think of Joseph and his time of 'rest' and 'waiting' (though busy working in the prison) while 'hidden away' in the prison - waiting for God's deliverance! It was this very time of RESTRICTION and being 'pulled back' that God was using to deepen his foundations and to prepare him for what God had in mind for him in helping the nation through their major famine, etc.!! I am SURE he would NOT have been prepared for that very busy and stressful season if he had NOT FIRST HAD this slower, hidden and painful time of restriction where he had a lot of time to focus on his relationship with God.
Along these lines, something which has been very encouraging for me in the past couple months have been a number of words that have been sent to me by some friends of a dear friend of mine who often receives prophetic words for people.
Because I am able to get out so seldom, it has been many years since I have been in a meeting where people were receiving prophetic words. Over the years that has happened on only a few rare occasions, but every time it has been of great encouragement as God used these things to help confirm things He had already been impressing on my heart or leading me into.
About 5? years ago I was going through another very dark spiritual wilderness time and was really feeling a need to hear some kind of confirmation from the Lord about some things, and just a general sense of needing to hear from Him in a unique way. So I just prayed and told God my desire and left it with Him.
Shortly thereafter, this friend of mine mentioned above, who used to be one of my pastors in Richmond, emailed me and said I had been on his heart and in his prayers a lot, and he felt like God wanted to give me some encouragement. He asked whether I would consider having him email some of his prophetically gifted friends and just give them my name, and ask them to ask God if He had something He wanted them to share with me. All they would know about me was my name.
Immediately I felt that this was an answer to my prayer/desire, and I said yes. Shortly thereafter I received, through them, several prophetic words which deeply encouraged me and many things helped to confirm things/directions I'd already sensed God leading me into and putting on my heart!
Looking back, many of the things mentioned at that time have also come about already!
Anyway, in the past months,because of the major transitions I've been in and the major things God seems to continue to grow in my heart, I started again deeply sensing a need for further 'outside' confirmation. As I prayed, I felt God impressing on me to email my friend and to ask him and his friends whether they would consider asking God for some words for me again, so I did so did he. Again, they knew nothing about me except for my first name.
Althougn not everything that was sent to me makes sense to me right yet (which is often the case), sooo many things, once again, were confirmed and I was and continue to be sooo encouraged by what was shared. Things I don't understand I am temporarily shelving and waiting for God to make it clear if He desires to do more with that.
In the meantime, I just wanted to share with you a couple things that one of the people shared, which I found extremely encouraging considering what I have shared about pulling back, simplifying my life, waiting for God's timing, this being a time of preparation and laying foundations for what's to come, and even the largeness of the task ahead...
From "T". - "... you will bloom when it's time for you to bloom...
Some things take longer to prepare. Sometimes the circumstances are critical to the fruition of a movement or plan. Sometimes plans are held off because a specific timing will create a bigger impact. I see the vehicle as classic, but modified - having had a lot of time put in to the preparation of it...
...And yes, a classic 'vehicle' but modified with Kingdom of God
values... it is a work in progress, getting the primping done before the
roadtest, and the "pink slip" finding a place of prominence
clearly visible to any onlookers eye...
...Don't cringe when He "pinches you back". This will create better fruit in the specific areas where He wants you to concentrate. Too much is too much and good will steal from great. I'm not talking about numbers here, but remember...Do one thing to the best of your ability and you will be guarenteed success. Well, I'm not speaking to the number of things that you are involved in, just that perhaps you should slow down a little. Give up some things that you aren't able to give yourself to fully, as they are reducing the effectiveness of the things that you are to give yourself to. The things that you have been anticipating. The things that have driven you in exellence. These are the things to throw yourself into. The other things are someone elses calling... or perhaps not, but they aren't going to be as effective until their time has come and they will reduce the effectiveness of those things that are "now" things. Further up and further in..."
FORWARD MOVEMENTS WITH THE GAT*EWAY CREA*TION ARTS CENTRE and related aspects
Although there have not been any visible big strides forward on developing the Gat*eway Crea*tion Arts Centre Ltd., the longer we wait and pray, the more God continues to seem to reveal the much bigger picture that this is a small part of, and how it is to perhaps fit into that!
For example, one of my local prayer partners, who used to run the daily aspects of the Surr*ey Arts Cou*ncil, has recently given me a copy of the City of Sur*rey's 5 year plan re culture and the arts, etc. for our city. As I'm reading it, I'm blown away by how closely our vision is with the City's vision in various ways, and how well it can compliment their vision, except for we will be coming at it from a biblical and Christ-centered perspective instead of a post-modern/extreme tolerance perspective.
The longer we wait and pray and continue to lay the foundations in practical ways - ie. developing the infrastructure and business aspects/databases, etc., the more God seems to be clarifying the vision...and enlarging it!! This is so totally impossible unless God does it!, but the bigger the vision seems to be getting, the more excited I am at what I believe God has up His sleeve that HE wants to accomplish!
No wonder the foundations are taking so long to lay down!! I'm sure I will be involved in aspects of this for the rest of my life, even then I don't know how much of it will actually have come into being by that time...
The core of it is being developed here in Surrey, but the vision includes arms reaching out internationally as well as the Lord leads and confirms our steps and provides us with the people and resources of His choice.
I can hardly wait to share more with you about this - especially the aspects about artists and community and artists as a vital part of community transformation, etc., so will likely do that next time since there is already sooo much I have shared with you in this newsletter!
THE ARTS and JUSTICE & SOCIAL ISSUES
A major area re the arts that God has been increasingly impressing on my heart over the past number of years, is ways that Christian artists can impact peoples by using their artistic gifts to impact justice and social issues, locally and overseas, etc.
Two of the articles I wrote this summer are about that: Enlisting God's Artists in Relieving the Plight of the Oppressed (click on link) and Stewardship of the Environment: Some Possible Roles for Christian Artists (click on link)
One of the issues close to my heart is that of refugees - another is orphans, to name just a couple.
It is in regard to both of these that in the past months God has connected me with ministry leaders that are totally involved in these areas that I'm in the process of finding specific ways to partner with them by helping to assist what they are doing by finding artists and artistic ways to do so.
The refugee ministry leader is someone I initially met through our mission many years ago and she has been involved with refugees in Toronto for many years, and many of them are M*s refugees. And of course my long-time worker also has worked with M*s refugees here locally for years.
Please pray for wisdom and the artists, art that God wants to use to help move things forward on these fronts. Thank you!! What can be developed for one such ministry could also potentially help to assist many more ministries that share similar vision. Again, the reproducing thing....
There is much more to tell you about in terms of future plans and events that I'm prayerfully considering for the upcoming years as the Lord leads and confirms, such as a Canadian-hosted (Surrey-hosted??) Global Music & Arts Gathering for Christian musicians and artists/missionaries, with a Great Commission heart, from any nation... I would soo deeply appreciate your prayers in this regard...especially for God's wisdom, discernment, timing, etc. and the health and resources and people that He wants to bring to be a part of this.
God certainly loves to do FAR MORE than we have asked or imagined, and I pray that for you, too, He is encouraging your heart with HIS ability to bring into being the visions He has put or is putting, or about to put on YOUR hearts, as well!!!!!! I would LOVE to hear what those might be and whether there is some way that I might be able to help participate, as well, as the Lord leads and enables... perhaps some of them overlap with what I'm doing or with what others I know are doing, and perhaps I could connect those that share similar vision and see what God might do?
THANK YOU AGAIN sooooo very much for all of your many prayers and on-going love, friendship encouragement and support as the Lord leads!! You are such a blessing to me and I thank God for you! There is no way I could keep going if it wasn't for God's wonderful way of having the BODY WORK TOGETHER! May His heart be blessed and may He be glorified as we continue to seek Him, trust Him and continue to follow Him!
If I have not yet responded to your emails, please bear with me and please accept my humble apologies for the very long delays! I have gotten further behind on them lately, because of the busy summer I've had in addition to my eyesight getting very stressed from doing too much reading - before and after my eye surgery. Thank you soo much for your understanding and patience!
Once I'm used to the glasses I hope to get this week, hopefully I'll finally be able to catch up on my emails to you'all!
With much love and prayers and with much appreciation,
Your sister,
Grace